Nowadays there are so many bands trying to expand on the black metal sound by injecting influences from various other genres into it, with varying degrees of success. Altar of Plagues’s style of music does the opposite - their sound is mostly a blend of sludge, doom and post-rock, but it contains enough elements of black metal to give it a darker and more menacing atmosphere.

In this case, the mix of genres works extremely well. White Tomb, Altar of Plagues’s debut full-length, has a couple minor flaws but is easily one of the better albums to come out this year. It’s composed of four long songs that flow between massive, driving tremolo riffs and softer, moodier sections. The band pulls off epic, 10-plus minute songs with surprising ease, although some of the songs tend to devolve into post-rockish meanderings near the end.

Altar of Plagues’s uniqueness comes from the textures of their music - the songs are full of shimmering harmonies and high melodic leads that most black metal bands would never use, but the music also has a visceral, darker edge to it. The blackest aspect of the band’s sound is the mid-range screamed vocals, which suit the rest of the music perfectly. There are also some higher-pitched black vocals which I found somewhat grating and out of place.

Really, my complaints about this album are mostly nitpicks about the things keeping White Tomb from being an utterly amazing album rather than just a very good one. Altar of Plagues has found a sound that is dark, brutal and emotive in ways that few other bands can claim, and being that this is their debut one would think that they will only get better from here.

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